Philosophy Quotes

"Identity requires an other; the political is constituted through differentiation."

"Political realism demands acknowledging that conflict, not harmony, is the natural condition."

"Theological concepts never disappear; they merely become secularized."

"Every political concept contains a hidden theological structure."

"The theological becomes political whenever it makes absolute claims on community."

"The exception proves that law does not exhaust political reality."

"The political question is not how to achieve consensus but how to maintain distinction."

"The moment of decision cannot be deduced from prior rules; it reveals authority itself."

"True political insight requires abandoning utopian hopes for permanent peaceful order."

"The exceptional reveals that law is always subordinate to political necessity."

"Political realism acknowledges that survival sometimes requires abandoning ethical principle."

"Modern society's attempt to eliminate the political merely displaces it."

"Liberal universalism fails to account for the particularity of political existence."

"The only thing that is truly evil is the belief that you are right and everyone else is wrong."

"The most dangerous moment is when you stop questioning your own beliefs."

"The purpose of philosophy is not to answer all questions but to ask better ones."

"The unexamined life is not just unphilosophical; it is inhuman."

"The philosopher's task is to make the visible strange and the strange visible."

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made."

"Duty! Thou sublime and mighty name."

"What can I know? What should I do? What may I hope? What is man?"

"We cannot deny our reason without destroying our very nature."

"A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as necessary of itself."

"Our duties toward ourselves are more fundamental than those toward others."

"A kingdom of ends is possible only through moral law."

"Conscience is an inner court before which our thoughts are tried."

"Virtue is the habit of right action in the presence of temptation."

"The categorical imperative is the principle of morality itself."

"Our reason tells us what our duty is; our will must follow."